Conversation: Blood test could detect kidney cancer up to five years earlier

Blood test could detect kidney cancer up to five years earlier

Scientists have discovered a marker in the blood that could predict the risk of developing kidney cancer.The research, supported by Cancer Research UK, the IARC and the NIH, found that measuring levels of the protein KIM-1 could determine whether a person is at risk of developing kidney cancer in the following five years.The findings also suggest that the higher the concentration of KIM-1 the greater the their risk of developing the disease.The researchers believe that in future KIM-1 levels could be used with imaging to either confirm kidney cancer or rule out the disease.“This work is a big step forward; KIM-1 is the only blood biomarker shown prospectively to distinguish between people at high and low risk of kidney cancer. But there’s a lot more work to do before we could envisage this in the clinic,” said Dr David Muller, Cancer Research UK-funded co-first author based at Imperial College London.Read more: http://www.pharmatimes.com/news/blood_test_could_detect_kidney_cancer_up_to_five_years_earlier_1248937